AD-14 is the end of year exhibition for the Art & Design department at the Auckland University of Technology.

I completed a Honours year (BArt Des Hons - First year Master).

BECOMING MEMORIES

1965  (2014) 100cm x 120cm – Acrylic, oil paint and Conté crayon on Ply wood - Framed

Collection: Wallace Arts Trust

1994  (2014) 100cm x 120cm – Acrylic, oil paint and Conté crayon on Ply wood - Framed

Collection: The Auckland University of Technology

1976  (2014) 100cm x 110cm – Acrylic, oil paint and Conté crayon on Ply wood - Framed

Collection: The Auckland University of Technology

2014  (2014) 100cm x 100cm – Acrylic, oil paint and Conté crayon on Ply wood – Framed

Collection: Wallace Arts Trust

1959  (2014) 100cm x 100cm – Acrylic, oil paint and Conté crayon on Ply wood - Framed

Collection: The Auckland University of Technology

Exegesis available online at Auckland University of Technology's library

Abstract 

How do memories become memories? Why do we beautify memories? How do we fill in the gap of the forgotten and the invisible?

This project investigates the idea of becoming new memories; the reconstruction of brighter, prettier and naïvely reconstructed perceptions of an edited past. This research will be articulated in a series of paintings based on vintage family photographs.

In particular this project focuses on three aspects of the memory system. Firstly, how as viewer we generate connections or narratives, when confronted with the unfamiliar, unknown or forgotten. Secondly, the perception of the body as a visible and invisible being, and its representational limitations for memory, through the vehicle of photography. Finally, I will question the motivation behind the naïve embellishment of memories.

This project is neither about the past or the present. It is about the internal experience of recalling and the becoming of (embellished) memories. It also investigates the painting strategies, which involve the viewer as a collaborator in the construction of narratives. With this painting series, I have attempted to establish a narrative collaboration between visible and the invisible memories as well as between the forgotten, the reminisced and the fantasied.

Through this means, the project aims to challenge the values of representation in relation to the notion of remembrance. I aim to locate this painting series in the space of uncertainty for an ever-changing narration where memories can be subjectively beautified.

Do we naively embellish the past in order to reconcile the present?